Rambo Tribble writes: The BBC is reporting from the TED Conference on a new app for Apple products which, purportedly, can analyze urine samples for various medical conditons. Does this mean the smartphone pissing contest just got real?

Rambo Tribble writes: Specially trained African giant-pouched rats are proving remarkably effective at land-mine and tuberculosis detection. The rats have an exceedingly keen sense of smell, are fairly easy to train and require little resources to sustain. The article compares their performance to more standard approaches, with amazing results.

Rambo Tribble writes: As reported by the BBC, the journal, Neurology, is set to release the findings of a study in Oregon on diet and brain shrinkage in Alzheimer's victims. The upshot is: a diet rich in vitamins and omega-3 fatty acids is beneficial; trans fat and fast food are detrimental.

Stranded on Earth in 1986, when Kirk and crew departed without warning, Rambo is a ninja tribble who was on a reconnaissance mission aboard the Klingon vessel, which the Federation crew had commandeered, as documented in the film, The Voyage Home.